A brief history of corn starts the discussion. Native corn plants were deemed not suitable for farmer's planting requirements of high planting densities, high fertilizer rates, mechanical cultivation and the grain grading requirements of modern agriculture. Research with 'synthetic' varieties of corn are open pollinated and created by combining several corn strains with sought characteristics. NDSB(MS)C8 and NDSG(MS)C8 are improved versions of the yellow dent synthetics deveolped at NDSU for it's early maturity corn breeding programs.